“Okay,” I whispered, placing my shock in the backseat alongside Colin. I needed to shed that emotion and focus on whatever road ahead that I was trusting this man to take us down. Because I knew in my heart, if he felt we needed protection, whatever was happening was serious. And who was I to risk our son’s life?

“Thank you.” Constantine reached for my leg, but he stopped himself and grabbed the wheel instead, quietly pulling onto the road.

“You’re going with the flow on this? Trusting this man?” Colin piped up a few minutes later. “You’re the polar opposite of go-with-the-flow, Mom.”

“Apparently, it doesn’t matter how strict I am when it comes to you, you’ll endanger yourself anyway.” I was hurting that he could keep so much from me, but now wasn’t the time to think about it. Colin would soon find out the man behind the wheel was his father. So, I willed away the tears and faced forward.

No one spoke another word after that, not until we were inside our home and Constantine ordered, “Go pack. Necessities only.”

Shockingly, Colin didn’t object, nor challenge my lack of pushback. That meant he truly had stepped into something dangerous and knew Constantine’s plan was best for us. I wasn’t sure how to wrap my head around that, and I was starting to wonder if the only way I could go with the flow was to not know anything for the time being.

Feeling like my purse weighed twice my bodyweight, I let it fall to the floor and wandered into the kitchen for a glass of water. Constantine followed me and, of course, sat in his seat. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs, cradling the back of his neck. Defeat cut through the hard lines of his body, and I hated seeing him like that.

Forcing myself to look away because I was battling too many conflicting emotions, I filled two glasses with water. He looked like he could use a drink of another kind, but knowing what lay ahead, water was all I was prepared to offer.

The second Colin appeared in the doorway, his jaw strained and his eyes on Constantine sitting in that seat, I quickly set the waters aside.

Aw shit.

“It’s you, isn’t it?” Colin stepped forward, holding out the Ziploc bag with the napkin in it. “You wrote this note, didn’t you? You’re him. You’re my father.”

14. Juliette

Chapter 14

Juliette

“It has to be you,” Colin whispered before I had a chance to say anything, throwing all my rehearsing for this moment out the proverbial window. “The way you protected me. Risked your life for me. How worried you were about me.”

Bloodshot eyes met bloodshot eyes. A father and son facing off, the truth stretching quietly between them.